Summertime
by CoeurdAzure
Summary: With Alya and Nino gone for the summer, and Marinette unable to keep up a normal conversation with Adrien, Ladybug decides it's time to drop the secret identities so that she can hang out with Chat Noir. Pointless fluffy silly fun, for those of you who are into that
1. Chapter 1

"Oh, Marinette, it can't have been that bad," Alya's voice chided from Mari's computer.

"He's never going to speak to me ever again," Marinette said, dropping her head into her hands.

Alya chuckled, and Marinette glared at her— well at the pixely video of her. The indirect eye contact somewhat ruined the effect.

"Mari, girl, you need to just relax. I promise, if you can manage to be yourself around Adrien, he'll like you," Alya said soothingly. "Besides, what happened to all the progress we made? A few days before I left, we were all hanging out and you were forming sentences just fine."

Marinette sighed. "It's different with other people around. The second it's just the two of us, I freeze up."

Alya shook her head with a smile. Oh, her adorable, socially-inept best friend. "So what did you do?"

"Well, he invited me over to play video games," Mari started.

"So you've been in his room?!" Alya asked excitedly. "Nino says it's insane. Does it really have a second story? And a rock climbing wall?" She asked excitedly. Mari opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off. "No, no, wait. Sorry. Important date details first, room descriptions second," she insisted.

"It wasn't a date," Marinette muttered sadly.

"Semantics," Alya brushed off.

"Fine. It was a disaster. I could tell he was trying to be nice, and he tried to get me to talk about my summer, but I just clammed up! I started telling him about a dress I'm making, and then realized that was stupid because boys don't care about dresses and Adrien probably gets enough fashion shoved down his throat during all those photo shoots his dad has him do. So he smiled at me really politely and said he'd love to see it when it's done, but I'm pretty sure he was just saying that, and I'd feel weird showing it to him anyway because his dad is Gabriel freakin' Agreste so it's not like he's going to be impressed by some silly little thing I threw together when he grew up with a real fashion designer!

Ugh, and then we played Mecha Strike, and I won a lot, and he wasn't a sore loser or anything, but I felt bad, so I let him win, and Alya, you should have seen his face! He knew! He knew I'd let him win! But he didn't say anything of course because he's a prefect gentleman, but I felt bad, so the next round I didn't hold back and I accidentally beat him in like four seconds, and then I didn't even know what to do for the next round so I said I had to use the bathroom, where I spent way too long talking to Ti— uh, to myself. Trying to get some self control.

"When I finally came back out, he suggested we get lunch, so we went to a café where, Alya, I kid you not, I knocked over a waiter's tray with my head in the first five minutes, and then almost choked twice because I couldn't manage to eat and breathe and try to talk at the same time."

Alya had both her lips bitten between her teeth as she shook with the effort of not laughing. "It's like you have a disease," she finally teased when she felt capable of opening her mouth without chuckling.

"I knooow!" Mari groaned. "Can we talk about something else now?"

"Sure," Alya conceded gracefully, deciding to come back to describing Adrien's room later when her friend looked less desperate. "I heard there was an akuma attack yesterday. Did you get me any pics?"

"I'll send it to you," Mari said, pulling up her phone and sending Alya the one picture she had managed to take before transforming. It was kind of far away and weirdly angled, but you could clearly see Overgrowth surrounded by his shrub army and Chat mid-vault flying over them to attack.

"It? You only got one!?" Alya demanded. Her phone pinged a second later, and she fished it out of her pocket.

Alya huffed dramatically. "Oh good, it's Little Hedge and Fourmi Noir," she said sarcastically.

"Well unlike some people, I don't generally run headlong into dangerous situations!" Marinette lied.

Alya laughed. "You're no fun. Where's Nino when I need him?"

"When you need him?! Where's Nino when I need him?!" Mari retorted.

Alya looked up from her phone quizzically. "What do you need my kinda-sorta boyfriend for?"

"An Adrien buffer!" Mari insisted. "If either of you had stayed, I wouldn't be in this situation right now!"

"I'm telling Nino that he's just a buffer to you," Alya quipped.

"Well tell him he's not a very reliable one," she grumbled back.

"Then again, maybe I should just let you tell him yourself. He's closer to your timezone after all."

"Speaking of which, what time is it there in Martinique? It's only 11:00 here."

"5:00 in the morning," she admitted sheepishly. "I'm jet-lagged bad."

Mari laughed. "Okay, I'm hanging up and you're going to sleep," she ordered.

Alya laughed and rolled her eyes. "Sure, mom, whatever you say. I'll talk to you later. Love you, Mar."

"Miss you, Al."


	2. Chapter 2

It was after 23:00, and Ladybug should have gone home by now. She'd done basically nothing all day but spoken to Alya a couple hours ago, who had finally gotten through the jet-lag. They'd been calling each other every few days now— at night in Paris, mid afternoon in Martinique. Marinette was happy to hear that Alya was having a great time with the extended family she was visiting, but she missed her dearly. And she was a little embarrassed when in all of their conversations Alya had some great new story and Marinette barely had anything to report except some sewing, working in the bakery, or an akuma attack (and she couldn't even get too into the akumas, because while Ladybug fought them, Marinette was always "safely hidden and out of the way").

So now, late at night, bored and half stir-crazy, Marinette had suited up and made for the rooftops. Chat Noir soon joined her, as he'd been doing a lot recently. She wasn't sure if he looked for her or if they were just on the same wavelength, but in her increasingly frequent summertime night runs, she ran into him as often as not. She was glad for it, though. Being around Chat made her not feel so lonely.

"So how's your summer vacation?" Chat asked casually.

Ladybug groaned. "Uneventful," she complained, lolling her head back and exhaling frustratedly.

"That bad?" he asked with a smile, amused by her theatrics.

She sighed, pulling her head back up, and admitted, "It's not horrible, really, it's just that pretty much all of my friends are gone, and I feel like I have nothing to do all the time. I'm exhausting my hobbies trying to keep myself busy."

"My friends are gone too," Chat lamented. "Well, all but one, but we rarely ever hung out just the two of us, and now when we do it's hard to keep up a conversation. I don't think she likes me very much. Despite my best efforts, I think we're destined to remain friends-of-friends

"Well that sucks. Do you guys not have anything in common?"

"Not even– I know we like at least a couple of the same things, she just never wants to talk to me. And I know she's not just quiet, because she can rant and rave as well as anyone when she gets excited and our other friends are around."

Ladybug hummed pensively. "I think I know what's going on," she said in a teasing voice.

Chat smiled and indulged her. "And what's that, my Lady?"

"She probably thinks your solid green eyes are weird. I know I do."

Chat laughed. "They don't _stay_ like this!" he insisted. "Besides, I've run into her as Chat Noir, and trust me, the eyes don't bother her. She was all excited to meet a hero. It's definitely civilian me she can't stand."

"Well then, it's obvious your civilian identity is a huge jerk, and the nice girl hates you," she claimed, laughing as she finished. The idea of Chat Noir being a jerk was absurd to her; she'd never met a more smiley, friendly person on her life.

"You've figured me out, Bug," he joked back. Ladybug noticed he sounded sorta melancholy about it, though.

"Hey," she said, bumping her shoulder against his to get his attention. "You're not a jerk, I was kidding."

"I know." He beamed at her reassuringly, but she'd known him long enough and well enough to spot a fake smile.

"Look, if this girl thinks you're a jerk, then she's the dumbest person ever. You're like sunshine incarnate. There's gotta be some other reason you don't get along."

Now Chat beamed for real. Ladybug waited expectantly for some sort of quip from him– 'sunshine incarnate? Are you saying you think I'm _hot_ , m'lady?'– but none came. Instead, he leaned over, rested his head on her shoulder, and said, "Thanks."

Ladybug gave his hair a ruffle. "Any time."

As they sat in a companionable silence, looking out over the lights of the city, Ladybug found herself thinking again how easy it was to just be with Chat. Talking or quiet, running around or just sitting on rooftops, it was never uncomfortable. She never felt pressured to fill a silence, or worried that she was talking too much. She didn't second-guess every tiny little movement, like ruffling his hair or bumping his shoulder.

On the other hand, the day she had spent with Adrien, she had questioned _everything_.

But she and Chat could only know each other so well like this– masked on rooftops for at most an hour or two a day. Maybe it was just because her summer was so lonely, but Ladybug was again hit with the intense yearning to be able to just hang out with Chat– to play video games and get lunch at cafés and see the new goofy summer movies that were coming out. She wanted to get to know him, _really_ know him, and she wanted him to be able to know Marinette. She wanted to introduce him to Alya and Nino and even Adrien, and invite him when they did things together after school. She wanted to be able to bring leftover pastries in bags with her family's logo on them to their superhero meet ups without having to worry that her overabundance of sweets and bread might give something away.

She wanted, for once in her life, to have someone she didn't have to lie to when an akuma sprang up. What she would give to not have to explain why she was running away while everyone was trying to hide!

"Hey Chaton?" She asked, getting his attention.

"Hmm?" He responded, not moving his gaze from the city or his head from her shoulder.

"Do you ever wish we were friends?" She asked.

That got him to sit up. He leaned back and gave Ladybug a look that was concerned as much as it was confused. "Are we not friends?" he asked, and Ladybug was shocked to realize he sounded hurt.

"No! I mean, yes, we are!" she rushed to reassure, flustered from having unintentionally upset him. "I don't mean we _aren't_ friends already, just that we aren't _really_ friends, y'know?" she tried to explain.

Based on the lingering concern and the way his brow furrowed in further confusion, she was going to guess he didn't know.

"I just mean, ugh, I don't know how to explain it," she admitted, dragging her hands over her face. "Do you wanna go see a movie together?"

Chat perked at that, though he still looked wary. "Are you... asking me on a date?"

Face palming and groaning, Ladybug fell backwards, her back landing on the roof with a soft thud. "No, Chat, I just wanna be _friends_!" she whined, frustrated at herself for explaining herself so poorly.

Chat leaned into her field of vision with an amused expression– still confused looking, but indulgent too. "Well now it sounds like your breaking up with me. First you ask me out on a date, and then you dump me before I even have time to accept," he teased. "Can I ask what I've done to deserve such _clawful_ treatment from my lady?"

"You overuse the 'clawful' pun, for one," she griped. She sat back up, and Chat shifted to give her room to do so. She looked at him, trying to phrase her thoughts before she spoke this time. He wore a patient expression, letting her think, but she could also hear his magical tail brushing the roof under them in nervous twitches.

"Chat, we _are_ friends," Ladybug said firmly.

"But?" Chat offered, guessing correctly where the sentence was going.

"But we only see each other up on rooftops or during akuma attacks. All I was saying before is that..." She stalled. This was it, she either told him she wanted to reveal their identities or she let it go. It was probably better if she let it go. It was probably better if they kept their secrets. Revealing themselves would probably only cause problems.

But God, she _wanted_ it.

With a deep breath, she continued, "All I was saying is that I want us to do normal friend stuff, like going to movies– which was _not_ meant as a date."

Chat laughed, relieved, and happily said, "Alright! It sounds like fun to me."

Ladybug was honestly a little confused by his reaction. "You seem very... flippant about it," she said warily. She would have expected Chat to be either very excited or very flustered or very something at the idea that they take off the masks, but he seemed entirely unperturbed by it.

"Well, it's not going to be the end of the world for us to see a movie together. I bet the theater will even give us free snacks, what with us being the heroes of Paris and all," he said with a smirk.

Oh. That's why he was so calm about it. "No, Chat, you're not getting what I'm saying," Ladybug told him.

He cocked his head at her. "What are you saying, then?"

"I'm saying you and I should hang out just us– just _as_ us," she explained.

"Uh-huh," he agreed, confused still and prompting her to continue.

"Just as _us_. You and me," she tried. His expression didn't change. God, he still wasn't getting it! "Without the masks, Chat!" she finally forced out, giving up on subtlety and starting to blush from nerves.

Chat froze.

For several seconds, he just sat there, mouth ajar, staring at Ladybug, who was squirming under his scrutiny.

"Do you mean it?" he finally asked, his voice quiet and breathy.

"It wouldn't be a date," Ladybug reiterated, worried anew by the intensity of the look he was giving her.

He blinked a few times, like he was processing what she'd said, then he shook off whatever was putting that fire in his eyes, and suddenly her friendly Chat was back with his lopsided smirk-grin and the playful glint in his eye. "Not a date," he agreed.

"Then yeah, I mean it," she said.

Chat's eyes widened in excitement, and his breathing picked up. He stood up, and offered Ladybug a hand up as well. Not sure why they were standing, she took his hand and was pulled to her feet.

"Okay! Great!" Chat said. "Do you wanna go first or should I?" he ask casually, confidently putting his hands on his hips and awaiting her answer with a wide smile.

Ladybug paled as panic gripped her. She staggered back a step. "N-n-now?!" she nearly shrieked.

Chat's smile dropped. "Uh, yeah?" he answered, now uncertain. "I thought..."

Ladybug tried to breathe, and at least partially succeeded. "Oh, okay, sure. I mean why not, right? Haha, yeah, let's just, um–" She was cut off by Chat putting his hand on her shoulder.

"You're shaking," he stated. She didn't like the sound of sad acceptance in his voice. "It's okay, we don't have to," he told her. She could hear the disappointment deep in his voice, but he held himself firm against it like he was used to it.

She didn't know much about Chat's life– that was part of the issue at hand– but she knew his family life was tense and cold. It occurred to her that he probably sounded used to disappointment because he was used to it.

"Yes we do," she said, steeling herself. This had been her idea, this was what she wanted, and she was determined not to be another person in Chat's life who just lets him down. Ladybug and Chat Noir did _not_ let each other down.

He smiled at her, thankful, but shook his head. "How about this: You know the little MK2 cinema by the Centre Pompidou?" Ladybug nodded. "Good. They're playing the new Batman movie. I'll meet you there tomorrow at 13:30, no costumes. We'll catch a matinée and just hang out afterwards, maybe get dinner somewhere."

Ladybug smiled gratefully. "That sounds good," she agreed.

"Great!" He said. The excitement shining in his eyes again.

"Not a date," she said again, jabbing him in the chest.

He laughed. "Well, it _is_ dinner and a movie..."

"Chat," she warned.

He threw his arms up in surrender. "Okay, okay, not a date, I promise," he conceded.

Ladybug rolled her eyes before unhooking her yoyo from around her waist. "À demain, then, Chaton," she said in farewell.

"13:30!" he called after her. "Don't be late!"


	3. Chapter 3

Adrien couldn't sleep. He'd gotten home hours ago, gotten in bed, gotten back out of bed, taken a shower to calm his nerves, gotten back in bed, gotten back out of bed again, paced his floor, tried to rewatch a favorite anime, failed to focus, listened to music with his headphones turned up painfully loud, gotten back in bed, gotten back out of bed, and was now scrolling through the forums of the Ladyblog. There was a whole page dedicated to fan theories of who the duo really were or what they were really like. Adrien checked it fairly regularly to make sure nobody was too close to his secret. They never were, and he always felt assured that he could easily disregard the theories on Ladybug's identity too. He knew his lady better than any of these random internet people anyway, and if he couldn't figure it out, it was unlikely any of them could.

But tonight, his impatience was eating at him, and the excitement thrumming through his veins like electricity was also causing static in the rational-thinking part of his brain. So he sat in his desk chair and clicked through page after page of 'evidence' that suggested Ladybug was this person or that person. He read what different people had tried to deduce about her personality, smiling at things that were correct– like when someone suggested she was probably a stubborn and take-charge kind of girl– and rolling his eyes when they were wrong– someone wrote a whole essay on how Ladybug was definitely a tomboy in real life. Chat knew better. He knew her favorite color was pink, that she got upset whenever an akuma attack happened before she had time to do her eyeliner in the morning, and that she followed current fashion like it was a religion. He remembered one time finding her staring so dreamily and love struck at the Eiffel Tower, he was compelled to ask if she'd been on a date earlier in the evening.

("I wish," she lamented longingly, kicking her feet idly over the edge of the roof she sat on. "A date would be the perfect excuse."

"Excuse?" He asked, completely lost, but at least cured of the pang of sad jealousy he'd felt before.

"Yeah. I just finished making a dress, and I found the _perfect_ shoes to go with it," she said with a sigh. She held one leg out in front of her, and looked at it with a soft smile.

"My Lady, you aren't wearing any shoes," Chat told her, unsure what was going on, and a little worried an alums might be involved.

"Shh. I'm picturing them. I had them on when I transformed, so it's like I'm still wearing them," she told him.

He bit his lip to stop from laughing; she was too cute. Instead, he sat down next to her. "Why don't you describe them to me?" He suggested.

Her head snapped to look at him, and her eyes were all lit up. "Really?" She asked.

He nodded.

"They're a really pretty soft rose color," she started, then spent the next ten minutes adamantly describing every tiny detail of her shoes and explaining why they complimented her dress so perfectly. He listened to every word and found himself smiling the whole time.)

He couldn't help but wonder how she was going to react tomorrow when she found out who his father was. The daydream of her excited exclamations were damped by the reality that her actually meeting his father would doubtlessly be a disaster. _Never meet your heroes,_ Adrien thought ruefully, then laughed at the irony.

It was already 4:00 in the morning. He needed to sleep. At this rate, he'd never survive their day together tomorrow, and the next few days after were filled with photo shoots and fencing practice and Chinese tutoring and piano lessons. Ladybug had actually been extremely lucky, as she always was, in when she asked. Tomorrow– no, _today_ , Adrien reminded himself with a rueful glance at the clock on his desktop– was one of the few pretty free days he had all summer. He had a piano lesson at noon, and nothing else. He had planned to try to catch up on some sleep in that free time, but his new plans were _so much better_.

He forced himself to crawl into bed, thinking about how angry his stiff-lipped piano teacher was going to be if exhaustion made him play sloppily. He couldn't find it in himself to care, so he changed tracks. He imagined falling asleep embarrassingly at the table of a restaurant where he and Ladybug were eating dinner. Or worse, he might be so tired before dinner that Ladybug would back out and tell him to go home and get some sleep. The useless anxiety twisted in his stomach. He was never going to sleep thinking like this. Instead, he tried to pull up a best-case scenario. His imagination didn't fail him. In his perfect, make-believe world, Ladybug would see how tired he was from staying up all night thinking about her. She would smile and call him 'Silly Kitty' affectionately, then they would come back here– or better! They'd go to her place, which was undoubtedly a warm, happy home full of love– and she would pull him into bed with her, where they would sleep cuddled together until the next morning.

With those thoughts nestled in his head, and a spare pillow clutched to his chest, Adrien finally fell asleep.

—

Marinette hoped she didn't look as tired as she felt. She hardly slept the night before from nerves– switching between excited nerves to be meeting her Chaton for real and dreading nerves for 'why in the world did I think this was a good idea?!' She ended up sewing just to give her hands something to do other than wring themselves to death, and had finished the dress she had been working on.

Now she was playing with the seam on it as she waited. She had been getting antsy waiting around her house all morning, so she had gone to the theater early. She checked her watch for the hundredth time. 13:10. Chat still had twenty minutes.

"Marinette?" a familiar voice called. She looked up and froze when her suspicions were confirmed. "A–Adrien? Wha–? I mean, hey! Um, what are you doing here?" He smiled pleasantly, because that's what Adrien did whenever Marinette was acting like a total idiot; he smiled in a way that tried to put her at ease. "Seeing a movie," he answered. Marinette wanted to hit herself. They were in a movie theater; of course he was seeing a movie.

Instead, she laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, me too."

"Which one?" he asked.

"Which one what?"

"Which movie?" he clarified with that polite smile.

 _Yes, Marinette, of course. Which FREAKING movie! You're in a freaking movie theater, and he wants to know which cheese you prefer. God!_ "Oh, um, Batman," she answered, gesturing at the poster behind her.

"Me too!" he said with a bright smile.

"Oh! Um, maybe you can join us. If you want, I mean."

"Us?"

"Yeah, I'm meeting a friend. He should be showing up sooner or later."

"Oh, well, I'm actually meeting someone too," he told her, then tacked on quietly, "if she shows up, that is."

There was an awkward moment where Adrien frowned anxiously and Marinette didn't know what to say.

"Well, if she doesn't make it, you can definitely join us," she offered.

"Thanks," he said with a grateful smile.

She wasn't sure if Chat would be upset or not about her inviting Adrien. On the one hand, he probably didn't want there to be a third person around for their big first meeting, but on the other, he might be interested in meeting one of Marinette's friends. Either way, she knew Chat was a compassionate enough guy to extend an olive branch to someone who'd been stood up, so she didn't think the invitation would be a problem.

"So is this the dress you were telling me about the other week?" he asked, glancing up and down at her clothes. He reached out and pinched a bit of the loose fabric of the skirt, rubbing it between his fingers thoughtfully.

Marinette blushed. Hard. Adrien was looking at her and touching her skirt.

Confused by why she wasn't answering, Adrien looked up from the fabric in his hand. Marinette was wide-eyed and bright red.

"Sorry!" he said, snatching his hand away from her dress and cringing at himself. "Sorry. I guess I'm just used to touching the clothes backstage and stuff," he tried to explain. He had grown up so accustomed to designers touching clothes on the models it didn't even seem odd to inspect something someone was wearing. But it was odd. What a creep Marinette must think he is– just grabbing at her dress like that. "Sorry," he said again when the silence dragged on.

"Fine," Marinette squeaked. She cleared her throat nervously and tried again. "It's fine. Don't worry, I was just, uh, not expecting… um, that."

"It's a nice fabric," Adrien said, hoping to relieve some of the tension. It seemed to have the opposite effect, though, as Marinette's blush flared up again. _Great_ , he thought, _This isn't going to help improve our friendship at all_. Hoping to change tracks, he asked, "So who are you're meeting?"

"Oh!" Marinette said with a start, somehow managing to seem even more flustered by the question. "Just a friend. We've known each other for a while, but never really hung out, so we decided we should start. What about you? Who's your date?"

"Um… She's a friend from… from work!" Marinette frowned. Of course Adrien would be out on a date with another model. She almost didn't want to stick around to see what she was up against. "And it's not a date," he corrected, sounding a little disappointed. "She's a really good friend, though. We've been through a lot together, and I can always count on her, y'know?"

Marinette smiled. "I know the type, yeah."

They sat for a few minutes in silence, both a little keyed up and anxious. Adrien kept his eyes pretty focused on the door and windows, watching the people walking past a little too intently. Mari mostly bothered her phone– opening and closing apps compulsively and checking the clock too often. She kept thinking of things to say to Adrien, and then thinking better of them. He had almost seemed to have forgotten she was there, his attention was so trained on the front door. Finally, a subject came to her that she didn't think would be too much of an imposition.

"So have you heard from Nino recently?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, sure," Adrien said distractedly. "We talk all the time. He's having a great time."

"Alya too," Marinette said. "I'm kinda jealous. She's having the vacation of a lifetime and I haven't done anything fun all summer." She slumped forward, resting her head on her knuckles dejectedly. Adrien glanced at her. He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again and looked back towards the windows with a slight frown. Marinette puzzled over it for a second, then realized what she'd said with a gasp. "Except for that one time we hung out, of course!" she insisted too loudly and forcefully. "When I said I hadn't done anything fun I didn't mean I hadn't done _anything_ fun! I mean, that was fun. We had fun, y'know, playing Mecha Strike and stuff," she finished lamely.

Adrien smiled at her, and it was really polite and unconvincing. "It's fine. That day was kind of a disaster," he excused. "Besides, I figure I'm not quite your favorite person, so don't worry about it," he said with a shrug.

"Yes you are!" Marinette insisted, then paled. "I mean, I don't mean you're my favorite person, because that would be weird. But you're not _not_ my favorite. No, I mean you're not my least-favorite person? No, Dieu, look, what I mean is, you're my friend, okay?"

Adrien looked shocked by Marinette's declaration, but it only lasted a second before he smiled. "You're my friend too," he assured her.

She just nodded in return, not really sure what else to say– or what she could say without digging herself into a deeper hole– and glanced at her phone again. 13:32. Chat was officially late.

Sighing, she decided to keep the whole talking-to-Adrien ball rolling. "So your friend. What's her name? Is she a model too?"

Adrien stiffened. "Uh… no, not a model. But I met her at a shoot," he explained nervously.

"If she's not a model, what was she doing there?" Marinette asked, innocently curious. There weren't many other things a person their age could do at a professional photo shoot.

Adrien laughed nervously and scratched the back of his neck. "She was… um, interning. Yeah, she was an intern at my dad's company!"

"That's really cool," Marinette said, trying to smile in the easy way Adrien did to make people comfortable. She didn't think she succeeded. She realized he'd never answered her first question. "What's her name?" she repeated curiously.

"Uh…" Adrien stalled. "I don't think it matters. It doesn't look like she's going to show."

Marinette furrowed her eyebrows. Why was Adrien avoiding the question? Maybe she knew the girl. No, that didn't make any sense. Maybe Adrien didn't know her name. But why wouldn't Adrien know her name? Granted, she was just lucky he hadn't turned the question back around on her, because she wouldn't have been able… to…

Marinette's brain screeched to a halt.

It wasn't possible.

Nope. No way. Absolutely unimaginable.

She refused to even think it. There was no way her prefect, wonderful, blonde-haired, green-eyed boy was… well, her _other_ perfect, wonderful, blonde-haired, green-eyed boy.

Ah la vache. This was just her luck.

"Adrien?" Mari asked, getting his attention.

"Yeah?" He turned to look at her, and she paused. For a second she doubted herself, but there was something familiar about the look he was giving her, about the set of his lips and the green of his eyes.

"Are we waiting for each other?"

"What?!"

"Well, your story didn't really make any sense, and I'm thinking you don't know this girl's name, right? Well, we're both here, waiting for mystery people to show up, and we're both pretty sure they wouldn't stand us up, but we're the only two people here."

Adrien's mouth opened and shut a few times while he floundered, but he eventually managed to ask, "Are you saying… you're—?"

"Your Lady?" she offered. Adrien gaped at her for a second longer, then suddenly threw his arms around her.

She hugged him back, laughing into his shoulder, and while a tiny part of the back of her mind freaked out that _Adrien_ was touching her, the larger part of her felt the familiarity of physical contact with Chat.

"I can't believe this," he said, squeezing her tighter. "What are the odds?!"

"I don't know," Marinette answered, "but we're gonna miss our movie if you sit here and try to calculate it," she teased.

Adrien pulled back, leaving only his hands on her shoulders, and smiled. "We'd better move then." He stood up, and when he let go of her shoulders, grabbed one of her hands to pull her up too. Her heart skipped a beat when his fingers wrapped around hers, but they were gone a second later when she was on her feet.

Adrien bought the tickets and Marinette the snacks, both of them thinking about the other's hand, and both of them reminding themselves that this wasn't a date.

They got into the theater just as the previews were starting. Adrien leaned over to grab a large handful of popcorn, and when he was near, Marinette took the chance to whisper, "Hey, I just thought of something."

"Huh?" Adrien asked, leaning in closer to hear her better.

"I was wrong before– I'm pretty sure you are my favorite person."

Adrien beamed at her, then they both turned their attention forward to the screen.

 _Not a date_ , they both reminded themselves again.

—

"—and then when the Joker tried to kill all of them by blowing up the building! That was so crazy! I love the Joker."

"You do?" Marinette asked, cocking an eyebrow at Adrien as they walked down the street towards the Latin Quarter to find a restaurant for dinner.

"As a character, obviously. God, I'm glad we don't have a bad guy that crazy. Your turn, though: what did you think?" He asked, turning to her with an expectant smile.

"I liked it," Marinette answered vaguely. Honestly, she'd spent half of the movie alternately freaking out and calming herself down over the fact that Adrien was Chat and that they were out together and that she had sabotaged herself by demanding it not be a date. She had decided it was for the best, though, because now that Adrien knew who she was, it probably would have been awkward for them to be on a date anyway. As it was now, they were out as friends, and nothing could be simpler. Talking and joking and teasing with Adrien had seamlessly taken on the ease of being around Chat, and she was more surprised than even Alya would be at how easily she could be herself with him now.

"'I liked it,'" Adrien quoted. "A raving review."

Marinette laughed. "No, it was good! It's just, well, it was another superhero movie, y'know?"

Adrien stopped walking, and a step later Marinette stopped to and turned to face him. His jaw was dropped. " _You don't like superhero movies?!_ "

Marinette shrugged. "I mean, they're fine," she hedged.

"Mari," Adrien said, stepping towards her and grabbing both her shoulders. "You literally _are_ a superhero," he stressed quietly.

Marinette laughed, rolled her eyes, and turned back around to keep walking.

Adrien trotted up to her a few seconds later.

"So you don't like superheroes," Adrien accepted flippantly. "That's fine. I don't take it personally. At least you still like cats, right?"

"Actually, I always wanted a hamster," she told him with a sideways glance and a smirk.

Adrien stopped walking again, this time to clutch at his chest dramatically and making choking noises. Marinette tried not to laugh as she kept walking.

"How could you!" He called when she was a few steps away. "And to think I once called you friend," he continued theatrically when she still didn't stop.

"Does this mean we aren't getting dinner together?" She asked over her shoulder.

Adrien jogged to catch up again, and answered. "Of course we're still getting dinner. Food trumps mortal enemies any day."

"If you invite Hawk Moth to brunch, I swear to god, I'm out. Friendship over."

"Rude. For all you know, he might be a stunning conversationalist."

"'Nice weather we're having. Give me your miraculous.'"

Adrien laughed. "'How are exams? If superheroing is cutting into your studies, you could always just hand over your miraculous.'"

"I hear the croissants here are amazing. Worth trading your miraculous for, in fact. Can I offer you one?'"

"'Nice plans you have there. It would be a shame if someone were to akumatize a random stranger right now.'"

"Chat Noir, if you jinx our dinner I'm going to kill you!" Marinette scolded.

There was a long silence while Marinette processed what she'd said. "I mean Adrien," she finally corrected quietly, glancing around to see if anyone might have heard her. Nobody was very close, and of those who were, none seemed interested in the pair.

Adrien laughed. "You gotta be more careful with the pet names, _my lady_ ," he said, stage whispering the last part.

Marinette flushed red. "Sorry! Sorry!"

Adrien couldn't help but laugh more at her embarrassment. "This is exactly why I didn't want to tell you my secret identity," he teased.

Marinette buried her head in her hands. "I know you're joking, but ugh. I've only known for like two hours and I already messed up!"

"I'll consider forgiving you if you let me pay for dinner," he tried.

"I'll consider continuing to hang out with you if you stop trying to pay for everything," she quipped back.

"You know, I thought I had gotten away with the movie tickets before I saw that you'd gotten the snacks. That probably cost more than mine did," he lamented.

"Now you know better for next time."

Adrien smiled at the prospect of 'next time.' "Or maybe next time I'll just have to show up early to buy the tickets _and_ the snacks before you even get there."

"Um, I don't know if you remember, but you showed up early this time, and I still beat you there."

"You're right. But this time I didn't take into account that you'd be so excited for our not-a-date. Next time I'll know better."

"Next time I'll show up _even earlier_ ," Marinette promised intensely. They stopped and stared at each other for a moment before they both broke into laughter.

"Okay," Adrien said through continued chuckles, "how about we agree to split things, and cancel all future races before they get out of hand."

"That was my plan in the first place!" Marinette objected, still laughing.

"And I was a fool for ever doubting you."

They had stopped walking in the middle of a bridge over the Seine, and Adrien curbed to lean against the rail. Marinette followed him, and looked at the boats on the water. She didn't see the way he was looking at her.

For a moment they stood in silence, then Adrien said, "I'm glad we did this."

Marinette turned her attention to him with a smile. "Yeah. Me too."

"Dinner then?" he asked, pushing off of the rail and offering her his elbow.

"Dinner," she agreed, linking her arm with his. She told herself that she linked arms with Alya all the time so she really really didn't need to freak out, and when that didn't work, she instead thought about how much closer contact she'd frequently been in with Chat, comparatively making this nothing, until her heartbeat settled back to somewhat-normal.


	4. Chapter 4

Adrien: [Killlllll meeeeeeeee]  
Adrien: [For real, I need an akuma to burst in here right now and ruin this photo shoot]

Marinette: [youre real casual about jinxing things]  
Marinette: [speak of the devil and the devil shall appear as they say]

Adrien: [Is it that easy?]  
Adrien: [Akuma akuma akuma]  
Adrien: [...]  
Adrien: [Nothing.]  
Adrien: [Marinette, you lied to me!]

Marinette: [can a photoshoot even be that bad? dont you just sit places and look pretty?]

Adrien: [1. I'm offended]  
Adrien: [2. Thank you for calling me pretty]  
Adrien: [and 3. A photo shoot alone wouldn't be so bad, but I swear my dad is trying to murder me!]  
Adrien: [Is death by over-scheduling a thing?]

Marinette wanted to assure him it wasn't so bad, but he kinda had a point. In the few days since they had revealed themselves to each other, Adrien's schedule had been packed, and seeing as there hadn't been an akuma, the two hadn't even seen each other in all the time in between. They made up for it by near constant texting, though.

Adrien: [I just need to survive one more day after today. Then I'll finally have some free time!]

Marinette: [i thought you were booked til thursday]

Adrien: [... Yeah?]

Marinette: [it's monday]

Adrien: [NoooooOOOOOOooooooOoooOoOoOoOooOOOOOOooOoOoooOOOoOoOooOoo]

Marinette: [my poor minou]

Adrien: [•w•]

Marinette: [why cant you just write :3 like a normal cat freak?]

Adrien: [Mine has whiskers]

Marinette: [and the power to haunt my nightmares. congrats]

Adrien: [•w~]  
Adrien: [Gotta get back to work. Good luck with your nightmares!]

Marinette rolled her eyes at her phone.

"How's Adrien?" Tikki asked, floating up and landing on her shoulder.

"Stressed, I think, and tired. I was hoping we'd hang out on Thursday, but if he wants to sleep all day I don't think I could hold it against him." She sighed and turned back to her computer. Netflix sat, paused, but she was bored of even that. "I'm gonna go see if my parents want a hand in the bakery," she said. "Will you be okay up here?"

"Sure!" Tikki said, clicking play on the movie they'd been watching.

—

It was about 22:00, and Mari was in her pajamas reading in bed, with Tikki dozing on her stomach. She hadn't ever heard more from Adrien, and she hoped he was doing okay. Through all the joking, she could tell his schedule was really getting to him.

"Maybe I should text him," she said to Tikki.

"He'd probably be happy to hear from you," Tikki agreed sleepily.

Mari reached for her phone, but before she could grab it was startled by a tapping above her head. She yelped at the sound, fumbled her book, and knocked Tikki into the air all in one motion, then looked up to see a pair of glowing green eyes staring down at her through the skylight.

Chat smiled and waved, like he hadn't almost just given her a heart attack. Marinette laughed, then scrambled up to open the hatch.

"Hey," he said, dropping into her room lithely.

"Hi," she said back brightly.

He plopped onto the bed next to where she was sitting and face planted into her pillow. "Is it cool if I hang here for a bit?" he asked, muffled.

Marinette laughed. "Sure," she said, lying back down on her back next to him. "How was your day?"

He didn't answer, but a low whine seeped out of the pillow.

"That bad, huh?"

He nodded, still without picking up his face.

"Does the kitty need scritches?" she teased, but surprisingly, that got him to prop himself up on his elbows.

"Mari, I would love you forever," he swore.

Stuffing down all the emotions _that_ brought up, she reached over and dug her fingers into the hair just under his cat ear. He flopped back down onto the bed and hummed in delight, so she scooted closer and kept going.

After a couple minutes, during which Marinette was pretty sure Adrien had fallen asleep, he surprised her by muttering "claws in," lazily, proving him to be awake. In a flash of green, Adrien was left lying on her bed, wearing pajamas, and still convincingly asleep. Plagg appeared in the air above him, but with only a yawn, moved to seek out Tikki on her own little pillow next to Mari's bed. She watched him go, curious from never having seen another kwami, and smiled when he and Tikki snuggled together and settled.

She turned her attention back to Adrien. He hadn't moved, but his eyes were open. He was looking at her– just looking. It wasn't intense enough to be staring or inquisitorial enough to be watching, it was just like his gaze had settled on her, like looking into her eyes for these long seconds cost him nothing.

She realized her hand had stopped moving in his hair, and began running her fingers against his scalp again. His eyes rolled up, then closed, and he hummed again, completely content.

Eventually she closed her eyes too, and just let her fingers massage his head and play with his hair.

She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, but after a long while, Adrien murmured unwillingly, "I probably have to go."

Marinette was asleep enough that vague noise of complaint was the only response she could muster.

He laughed, and it was a soft, low, tired sound that made Marinette feel warm just from hearing it. Her fingers continued to fiddle with his hair, almost as if they were protesting the idea of him leaving by not stopping, until she felt Adrien's hand grab hers and softly extract them.

She opened her eyes then, and was immediately met with his gaze. His hand was still holding hers, and his hair looked all messed up from her tousling it. His eyelids looked heavy, but the green focused on her was awake and alive. His lips were just barely parted, and she imagined herself leaning in, moving closer, and kissing him.

She took a deep breath and got rid of the thought, then forced herself to sit up before it came back.

"You feel better?" she asked, stretching her shoulders out.

"So much better," he assured her, sitting up as well. "I might even survive until Thursday now," he added with a cheeky grin.

"No more wishing for akumas?" she checked.

"No promises," he teased. He shifted around Marinette to the pillow where their kwamis slept. "Time to go, Plagg," he said, scratching the little being on the head affectionately.

"No," Plagg whined.

"I know the feeling, but come on," Adrien insisted, picking him up.

With a heavy sigh, Plagg said, "Fine, but we're coming back soon."

"Well I guess if you're going to twist my arm," he agreed with a chuckle. "Claws out."

Marinette shielded her eyes from the bright flash of Adrien's transformation. She opened the skylight and he climbed out. She followed him halfway, standing on the ladder and sticking her head and shoulders out onto the balcony. "Good night, Chat Noir," she said when he extended his staff over the edge of her building.

He smirked at the name. "Good night, Princess," he bid back, winking at her.

She laughed at the nickname, he vaulted away, and she sank back into her room and onto her bed.

"It was nice to see Plagg," Tikki said with a cute little yawn before nuzzling back down into her pillow.

"Hmm," Marinette agreed, cozying into her own bed. Tonight had been nice indeed.


	5. Chapter 5

"How was your cousin's beach house?" Mari asked.

"Amazing, beautiful, stunning... and boring as all hell. Mari, I don't think I can survive without wifi!" Alya complained.

"You seem to have made it through the week," Mari noted with a smile.

"Barely!"

"You poor thing! Spending a whole week in the sun on the beach in the Caribbean. The inhumanity! The horror!" she mocked.

"You know, you kid, but I think the most telling thing about me as a person is that when I got turned into a super villain, my power came from having cell service."

"And what does Nino's bubble-based akuma tell us about him?"

"That he's a beautiful cinnamon roll too good for this world, too pure."

Marinette laughed. "Can't argue with that."

"So I checked the news— no akuma attacks." Mari's phone plinged in her lap. "I guess the people of Paris are enjoying their summer."

"Uh-huh," she answered absently as she opened the text from Adrien. It was a picture of the stage cast of Les Misérables, captioned 'One day more!'

"What are you doing?" Alya asked.

"What?" Marinette said, looking back up from the phone in her lap.

"You looked at your crotch and smiled," Alya explained. "Either you're wearing pretty underwear or your texting someone. Either way, I need details.

Marinette laughed nervously, "Actually, it's Adrien," she said, holding up her phone for the webcam to see.

"WHAT?! I'm incommunicado for a _week_ and you're dating Adrien?!" Alya demanded.

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Not dating," she corrected.

"That's not what that smile at your crotch says!" Alya protested. "Oh my god, I can't believe you didn't open with this! I didn't wanna talk about the dumb beach house anyway!"

Pling.

Adrien: [Nathalie, the one true love of my life, got me out of my Chinese lesson and fencing practice tomorrow, so I am 100% free dawn til dusk! Apparently she told my dad I've been tired-looking. Don't know where she got that impression from, all these days of constant grueling work have really been perking me up. I'd suggest we meet up to play Mecha Strike, but I don't think I can take the pity of you letting me win again. Hang in the park, maybe?]

"You're doing it again! What did your crotch say this time?" Alya asked.

"I'm not going to answer if you ask it like that," Mari protested.

"Marinette, you tell me what Adrien wrote to you right this second or I'm getting on a plane to Paris to wrestle that phone out of your hand!"

"That's a horrible threat, I _want_ you to come back to Paris," Marinette told her.

"Mari!"

She laughed and read the text out loud.

"Tell him Nathalie is gonna have to throw down with you for the title of One True Love," Alya suggested.

"Or I could say 'Sounds good to me. I'll bring breakfast,'" Mari said, typing as she said it and pressing send.

"You're bad at flirting," Alya whined with a pout.

"Okay, one, that is literally news to no one..."

"True," Alya conceded with a shrug.

"and two, I wasn't _trying_ to flirt, so I'm gonna say I achieved my goal."

"Boo," Alya heckled, giving her a thumbs down. Mari's phone plinged again. "What did he say now?"

"'I've changed my mind: breakfast is the one true love of my life. Can you bring me a quiche?'" she read.

"Tell him you and breakfast are going to have to throw down for the title of One True Love."

"Alya. No."

"Fine, be no fun. But seriously, details! When did this start?"

"Well, the day after you went radio silent, we went to a movie together and got dinner after."

" _Marinette_! _That_ is a _date_!" Alya nearly shrieked.

"I was decidedly not a date. We actually both agreed that it wasn't a date, and we saw Batman, so it was hardly romantic."

"Nino and I made out during the Avengers," Alya disagreed.

"Didn't you see that three times?"

"Duh. I wouldn't have made out with him the first time— I might have missed something."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Well shockingly, flashbacks of a little kid watching his parents get shot didn't really set the mood."

"Let me guess, then you got dinner at McDonalds, just to keep the buzzkill going," Alya said, slumping forward in her chair and scowling.

Marinette blushed. "Actually, we found a little restaurant in the Latin Quarter. It was nice, we walked across the île de la cité when the sun was low and the river was really pretty."

"So you're telling me you crossed _two_ bridges and kissed Adrien on _NEITHER_ of them!" Alya groaned and leaned backwards and covered her eyes with her arm. "Please, girl, put in an ounce of effort! I can only ship it so hard from afar. So what was 'not-a-date' number two? Do I even want to know? Is it just going to be as frustrating as the first one?"

Mari blushed, thinking about the night before last when Adrien showed up at her skylight. She couldn't really explain that to Alya, though, and even if she could, she wouldn't understand. The bond she and Adrien shared as Ladybug and Chat Noir wasn't something she could put into words, but it was more important, somehow heavier, than just dating/not-dating.

"Tomorrow will be definitely-not-a-date number two. He's been crazy busy since we saw Batman. I'm surprised he doesn't want to sleep all day tomorrow, but I'm not about to complain," Mari explained.

"You should invite him over for a nap-date," Alya insisted.

Marinette rolled her eyes, but didn't disagree. That might be a solid plan, actually...

Someone called Alya's name in the background of her video. "That's my cue," Alya said, looking over her shoulder. "I'm enlisted to take the twins dress shopping while my family sets up a surprise party for their birthday," she explained fondly. "I'll send you pics later! Let me how your in-denial-about-it-being-a-date goes, okay! Or better yet, live tweet it!"

"Not a chance," Mari said flatly.

"It was worth a shot." Alya shrugged.

Mari rolled her eyes. "Love you, Al," she said in farewell.

"Miss you, Mar!"

—

Adrien was laid out like a belly-up starfish on the picnic blanket, eyes closed and soaking in the sun. Mari was sitting between one of his arms and legs, doodling dresses in a sketchbook absentmindedly. They had started the day late— Adrien had slept till 10:30, and they didn't meet for breakfast in the park until 11:00. He had apologized for not waking up earlier, which Mari thought was ridiculous, considering that he'd been working so hard (and that she often didn't wake up till 10:30 without the convenience of an excuse anyway).

Tikki and Plagg were both settled in Mari's lap on her skirt, effectively hidden from the world by the wall her arms and sketchbook made. Tikki was watching her draw and leaning against Plagg who was asleep in a similar pose to Adrien's.

Mari's attention was pulled from the skirt she was working on by a touch on her leg. She glanced over and saw that Adrien had reached to scratch her knee for her attention.

"Huh?" she asked, meeting his gaze.

"What're you drawing?" he asked. She opened her mouth to answer, but he cut her off. "Is it me? Are you drawing me like one of your French girls, Marinette?"

"No, Kate Winslet. I'm just doodling some clothes."

"Can I see?" He rolled onto his side to face her and propped himself up on his elbow.

"Sure," she said, handing the sketchbook over to him. He thumbed through the pages and she tried not to be self conscious about her work.

"These are really good," he said appreciatively. "Are you gonna make them?"

"Maybe some of them?" she answered uncertainly. "I like to doodle a lot, see what works, and then build things from the pieces I like," she explained.

He beamed up at her. "My dad does that, too," he said.

"Really?" she asked with a shocked smile.

"Yeah, constantly," he said with a nod.

"Well I must be on the right track then."

"Sure, but if you start over-booking extra lessons into my schedule too, I'm running away to live with Nino," he threatened with a grin.

"That reminds me, I set you up with a violin teacher to begin learning this afternoon. You'll have to practice forty hours a week, and you'll meet with the instructor twice a day to make sure you become proficient. And after that, we'll get started on teaching you German!"

"Noooooo!" Adrien whined with a laugh, flopping back into the blanket and putting his fists over his eyes. "Anything but German!"

"Hier ist ein Kaninchen," Marinette said sagely.

Adrien laughed. "Do I even want to know what that means?"

"'This here is a rabbit.' It's the only German sentence I know," Mari explained.

Adrien laughed harder. " _Why_?"

"Not telling," she insisted smugly. "Now that you know my secret identity, I have to maintain the feminine mystique somehow."

"And you think strange foreign phrases is the best way to do that?" he asked skeptically.

"Donde esta la biblioteca," she answered.

"Ha. Even I know that one. Your feminine mystique is ruined," he told her with a smirk.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted," she said with a nonchalant shrug.

Adrien laughed and then they were quiet agains for a while. Mari picked back up her sketching where she left off, and appreciated the companionable silence they were able to share. She thought back to the lunch she went to with Adrien before she knew he was Chat and wanted to laugh at herself for trying so hard to think of things to say. This, now, the quiet bubble they were in with Paris bustling around them as white noise, was so easy and perfect.

"It's nice to have a quiet day," Adrien said, as if he'd read her mind, without moving or opening his eyes. "I always wish I had more time to just lie around, do nothing, not worry about work or lessons or school or akuma attacks."

"You're going to jin—" CRASH. "Dammit, Adrien."

He sat up quickly, and they both looked to where the noise had come from. A large, over-muscled, green, hulk-man with red boxing gloves came around the corner and into view, punching a dent into a building as he did so.

"Tell me to throw a fight, will you?! Well now I'm going to throw you!" he screeched at a man in a cheap brown suit who was trying to scurry away.

Adrien met Marinette's eyes excitedly.

"You aren't supposed to _enjoy_ this!" she accused.

"I could use a little stress relief, so sue me!" he said, scooping up Plagg and running for a secluded spot to transform.

Mari rolled her eyes before abandoning her sketchbook with the last of their picnic and following him. Within seconds, Chat Noir was between the behemoth and his prey, distracting the monster and giving the man a chance to run.

"So what do they call you?" he taunted. "The pretty puncher?"

"I am Fist Fight!" The akuma roared. Hawkmoth's purple mask lit over his face for a second, then he screamed, "I will take your miraculous! Then I will take my revenge!"

"Good luck with that," Chat said calmly, extending his baton and launching himself into the air and onto the roofs.

Fist Fight moved to chase after him, but before he could even try to scramble up the buildings, his hands were tied up in Ladybug's yoyo.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you to use your words?" she scolded.

In response, he roared at her like a crazed animal. He ripped his arms apart from each other, freeing his hands and yanking Ladybug forward to the floor in front of him, where she rolled and crouched. All at once, his gloved fists came down on her like a gorilla's, Chat's voice yelled 'NO!' from too far off, and Ladybug leapt out of the way, barely escaping becoming part of the crater formed in the sidewalk.

She righted herself, just as Chat slammed down his baton on Fist Fight's head. He turned around, swinging wildly for the hero, but only hitting the air as Chat sprung off his shoulders and flipped back.

Ladybug noticed the belt he was wearing— a boxing championship trophy— and realized it was probably the cursed object.

"Chat! His belt!" she yelled. He was running down he street with Fist Fight right on his tail, but he managed to make eye contact with her, affirming that he got the message.

Now to just get it off of him.

She threw up her yoyo and called a lucky charm, which dropped a large red and black boxing ring bell into her hands.

When she looked back, Chat was pressed into a corner, and Fist Fight was heaving with rage while he stalked towards him. Ladybug rang the bell, and like a dog to a whistle, he perked up and almost instinctively turned towards her.

The second-long distraction was all Chat needed. He lunged forward, tore the belt off the akuma, and hurled it towards Ladybug before the monster even had the chance to realize what had happened.

She dropped it on the floor and hit it hard with the lucky charm bell, causing a crack in its metal plate. The little purple butterfly flew out and tried to escape, but Ladybug easily caught it and purified it, then fixed all the damage it had caused.

"Good job," Chat said, approaching her and holding up a fist.

She bumped it with her own. "Good job," she agreed. Her earrings beeped.

"You'd better run before I find out your secret identity," he said with a wink.

"Anything but that!" she played along, then darted off to find a safe place to detransform. Chat watched her go with a smile, then turned to the fighter who was confused on the ground to help him up.

—

After explaining everything to the most recent of Hawkmoth's victims, Chat detransformed in an alley and went back to the park. Marinette was already there, sitting on the blanket and sketching as if nothing had ever happened. He sank onto the blanket next to her.

"You're never allowed to say jinxing isn't a real thing ever again," she told him.

He laughed. "That's fair."

He watched her as she drew. She was so focused on her designs, she didn't even notice he was staring. Meanwhile, he was trying to stop his brain from replaying that horrifying moment when Fist Fight had almost flattened her.

It was weird, he'd always known Ladybug was quick and smart and capable, and he knew he didn't have to worry about her in a fight, because she held her own just fine, but now seeing Marinette— soft, smiley, fragile Marinette— and imagining _her_ fighting all those akumas... It sent a chill through him.

She glanced up from her work, and cocked her head at him. "What?" she asked, noting the strange expression he wore.

"Nothing," he dismissed, shaking himself out of it. "I guess it just now _really_ sank in that you're actually Ladybug."

She smiled and reached over to scratch his hair where his cat ears would be. "It sank in for me when you tried to _actually kill me_ with a heart attack the other night," she told him.

He laughed, and leaned his head deeper into her hand. "I'm not sure if it's the cat magic or what, but this feels amazing."

She smiled at him. "Come here," she said, patting her lap.

With an excited light in his eyes, he scooted closer and rested his head on her thigh, facing out toward the park, and for the next hour or so, Marinette continued to doodle with one hand while she scratched Adrien's head with the other.


	6. Chapter 6

Adrien was lounging on Mari's chaise, flipping through one of the fashion magazines she had lying around. After spending most of the day in the park, they had gone back to her place with the promise of dinner, and Sabine did not disappoint. The stir fry she had made was amazing, and the cake Tom brought up from the bakery was to die for. Afterwards, he had been categorically denied to the right to help clean up, and he and Mari were sent upstairs. After a few minutes, though, she snuck back down to find cookies and cheese for the kwamis, prompted by Plagg's constant stream of complaints of starvation.

So Adrien amused himself with the stack of magazines Mari had (most of which he was in, he noticed). She often circled things she liked or scribbled notes in the background of things, which made the experience even more enjoyable.

She was still gone when her computer lit up and started playing a bubbly ringtone. He glanced over and saw that it was announcing an incoming call from Alya. Smiling, he jumped up and trotted to the computer to accept the call.

Her face appeared on the screen, surrounded by an orange wall with an intricately woven drape hung over a window.

"Adrien?" she asked, jerking away from her computer in surprise.

"Hello, you've reached the office of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She's currently unavailable, do you have an appointment?" he teased in his best Nathalie voice.

"Best friends don't need appointments. Where's Mari?" Alya asked, rolling her eyes.

"Oh dear," Adrien said, dripping with fake concern. "I'm so sorry, nobody told you." He picked up an empty notebook and flipped through it like he was consulting it. He picked a page at random and tapped it significantly. "Miss Césaire, is says here you've been terminated from your position as Best Friend. I _would_ advise you to reapply, but it seems the vacancy has already been filled! I'm Mari's Best Friend now," he informed her solemnly.

"Like hell you are!" Alya yelled. "I was hired for life! You tell your boss that if I don't get my job back, I'm going to sue her and spill all her deep dark secrets to the press!"

Adrien laughed and bit back the urge to quip that he knew at least one deep dark secret that she didn't. "I'll bring the matter to her attention, but don't hold your breath. We share a special bond."

"Oh yeah, and what's that?" Alya challenged, smiling.

"Mari gives me food," he answered seriously.

"Ha! Boy, you could gorge yourself on pastries all summer and still not be on my level of food received from the Dupain-Chengs!" she bragged.

"Well, she also gives me head scratches. Can you say that?" Adrien challenged.

Alya was silent for a second, shocked, then broke out into roaring laughter.

"What?" Adrien asked, suddenly self conscious. In retrospect, maybe that wasn't really the best thing to admit to.

Trying to control herself, Alya said, "Adrien, if your argument is that she feeds you and pets you, I'm pretty sure that makes you her cat, not her best friend."

Adrien laughed awkwardly, uncomfortable about how close Alya was to a certain truth there, but she didn't seem to notice it was off.

"Anyway, here's the deal: if you wanna be Mari's BFF, we're gonna have to throw down for the title. You think you're up for that, cat boy?"

"Cat boy?" Marinette's voice asked from behind him with an edge of panic. Adrien turned around in the swivel chair too quickly and almost fell out of it.

"Marinette!" he yelped, seeing her halfway through the trapdoor into her room with a stricken look on her face. "Alya called," he rushed to explain. "I answered it, and then we were just discussing throwing down."

"And Adrien basically told me you pet him," Alya added with a laugh and a knowing smirk. "I said if he only loves you for food and pets, that makes him your cat."

"Buuuuut-" Adrien cut in, blushing from ear to ear. "That's not a good comparison," he insisted, "because I don't just love you for food and pets!" Then he rounded on the computer and told Alya, "Besides! It's not getting _pet_ , you're intentionally twisting what I said! It's more like... head massages...?"

"That counts as pets in my book," Alya informed him. "But please, enlighten us, if you don't love Marinette for _just_ food and pets, what _do_ you love her for?" she asked with a teasing smirk.

"Alya!" Marinette objected, blushing as bad as Adrien was.

"No- I didn't mean- I mean- When I said-" Adrien stuttered.

Marinette finished climbing into the room, set the plate of kwami food down out of the sight of the camera, and shut the door behind her. "Don't bother, Alya's just being a jerk," she said, coming to the computer to glare.

"Now now, Marinette, I think we need to let Adrien finish what he was saying," Alya said, trying to hold back laughter at the poor boy's expense.

Adrien, who had somewhat managed to pull together some, answered, "Well I think we should discuss our impending throw down. I don't take such challenges lightly."

Marinette groaned. "Alya, stop suggesting throw downs to solve everything!"

"Never. Adrien and I gotta duke it out for the ultimate title of Mari's Best Friend."

"I'm leaving both of you and declaring Nino my new best friend," Marinette murmured as she pulled up another chair and sat next to Adrien.

Alya gasped. "Mari, if you try to bring Nino into this—"

"I swear to God if you say 'throw down' one more time..."

"—we're gonna have to throw down."

Marinette gave Alya a long flat stare. "I'm hanging up on you," she said, reaching for the mouse.

"Wait! No! I actually called for a reason!"

Mari paused. "Okay, shoot. What's up?"

"I heard there was an akuma attack today, like right by your house, too. Did you get any good footage?"

Mari frowned apologetically. "Sorry, Adrien and I were in the park, but it all happened so quickly. We were barely clear and it was over," she lied while Adrien nodded.

Alya groaned. "You're killing me! Why can't you just take pictures of disastrous events like everyone else in our generation?! Do you at least have any details for me?"

Mari pursed her lips. "Umm, he yelled that his name was Fist Fight. And he was green," she offered anticlimactically.

"Is that all?" Alya whined.

Mari shrugged.

Adrien looked scandalized. "No that is not _all_!" he disagreed loudly. "Okay Alya, picture this: The Hulk— giant green rage monster— wearing bright red boxing gloves and a metal champion belt. He comes barreling down the street, hitting dents into buildings and smashing cars and stuff, while this poor tiny stick man in a suit tries to run away..."

Very much to Alya's pleasure, Adrien went on to detail damn near every last second of the fight, intentionally leaving blank spaces for when they were supposedly out of sight. Alya ate it up, took notes even, and thanked him profusely.

"You're a freakin angel, Adrien!" she applauded when he finally wrapped it up. "Wanna be a junior journalist for my blog? We could chase around Ladybug and Chat Noir together while Marinette and Nino cower together in their New Best Friends secret hideout!"

Adrien laughed. "Though I would _love to_ , I would be straight up murdered by my dad if he learned I was actually seeking out dangerous situations, so I'm gonna have to pass."

Alya pouted. "Fine. But as long as I'm still out of town, I'm calling you for akuma details instead of Mari."

"Please," Mari begged. " _Please_ do that! I want nothing more than to be left out of your Ladybug obsession."

"Mari doesn't care at all about superheroes," Alya explained to Adrien, who had been giving Marinette a strange look.

"I know!" He lamented. "We saw Batman and she _didn't like it_!"

"What?! That movie is art!"

"I know!" Adrien agreed.

"I didn't not like it!" Mari protested, "I just didn't like-like it..."

Alya smirked. "You seem to be having trouble figuring it which things you like-like these days, don't you?" she teased.

Mari suddenly blushed bright red.

"What?" Adrien asked, realizing he wasn't on the inside of whatever was being insinuated, and thinking about how Alya had said she kept all Mari's deep dark secrets.

"Wow Alya, look at the time!" Marinette forced loudly. "I guess you gotta go," she insisted, still blushing and trying vehemently to not be seen by Adrien.

Alya laughed, but accepted it. "Yup. Gotta go. Love you, Mar."

"Miss you, Al," she responded, grabbing the mouse to close the window.

"Bye!" Adrien added quickly, waving.

Alya waved back just in time before Marinette hung up.

"What was that about?" Adrien asked.

"NOTHING. I'm going to make sure the kwamis got their food," she said too quickly, scrambling away to check the plate of cookies and cheese that she'd put down on the chaise.

Tikki was halfway through a cookie, and Plagg was roughly the size and shape of a tennis ball, all the cheese gone.

"Plagg has no manners," Tikki offered with a shrug.

" _You_ have no appetite!" Plagg argued back.

Meanwhile, Adrien frowned, still trying to figure out what Alya had meant and coming up with nothing.

—

"I told you she didn't hate you," Nino's voice said through Adrien's phone. "I told you a thousand times that if you just hung out with her and talked to her you two would get along fine."

"Yeah, well I tried that a thousand times and every one of them she clammed up and answered in as few syllables as possible, so I feel justified in thinking she didn't like me," Adrien answered.

"Yeah, because there's not a single other explanation for why Marinette was shy and nervous and blushy around you and only you for months," Nino drawled, and Adrien swore he could _hear_ him roll his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, man, just sayin'. I'm happy you and Mari are finally friends. And look, I'm not Alya, so I don't wanna get all up in your stuff, but if you ever need a wingman, I got your back."

Adrien was glad Nino couldn't see him blush. "It's not like that..." he muttered.

"Yeah, cool, no pressure, just sayin'. Anything else new?" he asked, graciously willing to change the subject.

"Umm," Adrien stalled as he thought. He ran through yesterday in his head. He'd already talked about the park and the akuma and Mari's parents, this time choosing to leave out the whole head scratching thing (though Nino would probably hear that nugget of gossip from Alya sooner or later). "Oh yeah, Alya and I are gonna have a smack down over who gets the title of Mari's Best Friend."

Nino laughed. "You know, I don't think Alya ever actually _means it_ when she challenges people to fight."

"Well too bad for her. I already picked the competition and the venue. Dance machine dance off at my place when you both are back."

"You don't expect _me_ to dance, do you? You remember last time," Nino warned.

"Nah, but it wouldn't be so much fun if you didn't come. Besides, Mari says that if we're going to fight over her, she's gonna run away with you as her Best Friend, and we can't have that, so you'll both be captives.  
"... I mean guests."

"Touching," Nino deadpanned. "Anyway, I gotta go, my mom is giving me the 'get off the phone and go outside' look. But I'll see you only like a week now, right?"

"Yeah! I can't wait for you to be back!" Adrien said, smiling. "Hey, do you know about Mari and Alya's super cute goodbye thing?"

"I see where you're going with this, and I refuse."

"Love you, Nin," Adrien sand teasingly.

Nino sighed. "If you make me say, 'Miss you, Adri,' I'm gonna puke."

"You said it! It counts!" Adrien insisted excitedly.

Nino laughed. "Next time we're coming up with our own. And it's going to be manly, dammit!"

Adrien cleared his throats in preparation, and in the deepest voice he could muster said, "Later, bro."

Nino, laughing, mimicked the treat clearing and after a dramatic pause, agreed, "Yo."

Both still laughing, they hung up. Adrien spun in his desk chair a few times before it came to a stop, and his eyes settled on his dance machine.

"Better get practicing," he murmured to himself, pushing out of the chair.

"Nooo," Plagg whined from the bed. "I'm trying to sleep! That thing is so _loud_!"


	7. Chapter 7

Marinette was at her desk sewing when she heard a knock on her skylight door. She quickly removed the pins from her mouth and poked them into her tomato cushion, set down the shirt she was working on carefully to not mess up the unfinished parts, then clambered up the stairs to her bed to open the hatch.

Chat Noir was almost invisible in the darkness except for the glow of his bright green eyes as she flung the door open. Instead of dropping in like she expected him to, he moved to give her room to climb out and said, "Suit up, we gotta go!"

"Akuma?" she asked, turning to look for Tikki, who had conveniently already popped up beside her.

"No, better!" he promised with a mischievous glint in his eye, reaching a hand down to help her up onto the balcony.

Quirking an eyebrow at him, she took it, and was all but lifted out of her room in his excitement. "Well I guess I'm glad to hear it's not _worse_ than an akuma, but are you gonna tell me what's going on?"

Now that Marinette was standing next to Chat, she saw he was nearly bouncing on his toes with excitement.

"So my dad has a show opening tomorrow in Milan," he started.

"I thought you said he wasn't going, though."

"He _wasn't_! He's been working himself even harder than me these last couple weeks to manage it from afar, but apparently there's some catastrophe, so he had to leave immediately to deal with it, and he took Nathalie with him to help!" Chat exclaimed.

"Okay. So?" Mari asked, feeing like she was missing the point.

"So?! So my house is empty! Come on! Suit up! We're having a sleepover!" he nearly yelled.

Marinette laughed. "Seriously?"

"Yes! I've never had a sleepover before! Well, I was allowed to stay at Chloé's hotel once when I was a kid, but that wasn't really a _sleepover_ because I had to stay in the one hotel room and she didn't want to come out of her suite much."

Marinette frowned and determinedly went back down the ladder into her room.

"What?!" Chat scrambled to his knees to stick his head into her room after her. "Do you not want to have a sleepover?" he asked incredulously.

Marinette was already down the stairs from her bed and rifling through stuff in her room.

"Of course we're having a sleepover. There is absolutely _no way_ I'm letting _that_ be the only sleepover you've ever had!" she called, scandalized by the mere idea. She threw some fluffy pajamas, two pairs of plush slippers– one cat themed, one rabbit– a couple video games, a spare controller, and a few DVDs into a bag, then went downstairs to fill the rest of the space with whatever snacks she could find.

"I didn't realize a sleepover required so many supplies," Chat teased with a grin, having climbed into her room to see exactly what she was packing.

"Well I suppose it's time you learned," Marinette answered, rifling through the drawers under her vanity. She held up two colors of eye shadow next to Chat's face.

"Why are you doing that?" he asked warily as she packed one and put the other away.

"We're doing makeovers. No complaints, no trying to get out of it," she told him.

"Mari, packing makeup for me is ridiculous," he said.

She leveled him a completely serious glare.

Unperturbed he continued, "I'm literally a model. Anything of yours you try to match to my skin tone, I already have in abundance and will suit me better," he informed her.

Marinette beamed. "So you don't mind me putting makeup on you? I was worried for a second there that you were gonna go all 'I'm a man' on me."

He laughed. "What part of 'literally a model' is not sticking with you? Whatever you do to my face, crazier has been done before."

"Challenge accepted!" she said, throwing in a few last things and slinging the bag over her shoulder. "Okay, Tikki, spots on!"

Chat shielded his eyes from the flash of her transformation, but couldn't bring himself to look away entirely. He'd never seen her transform before.

"Huh," he said when Ladybug was standing in front of him.

"What?" She asked, looking down at herself to see if something was wrong.

"Nothing, I just would have guessed your transformation would be more of a red light than pink," he said.

"Tikki knows my favorite color," Ladybug quipped, though she didn't actually think that was the reason.

"Well Plagg doesn't know mine," he griped back.

"You transform in green light, right?"

"Ten points for Gryffindor," Chat affirmed with a smile.

"So your favorite color isn't green... Blue?" she guessed.

Chat's smile got even wider. "You know me so well!"

"Either that or it's Tikki's good luck," she said, shooting him a cute wink. With a flick of her wrist, she slung her yoyo and needlessly flew up the stairs, then bounced off her bed and jumped through the open skylight.

Chat stared after her, starry-eyed. He couldn't get the damn smile off his face. He tried to compose himself, but his heart seemed to still be tripping over the fact that she had _guessed_ his favorite color! He shook his head and pulled himself together. Sure he was devastatingly and heart-stoppingly in love with this girl, but they were just friends (for now, he hoped), and he had a sleepover to get to.

Running on all fours, he climbed up and out of her room after her, and together they set off for his house.

—

Marinette's heart was running double time, and no matter what she did or told herself it would not slow down.

She was with Adrien.

In his room.

All alone.

In the middle of the night.

With nobody else home at all.

Just the two of them.

She took a deep breath and retracked her train of thought. She had a sleepover to throw. Adrien had just detransformed, and she followed suit. Having access to her bag again, she flopped it on the floor and began to dig through it. She stacked the games, DVDs, snacks, and makeup on the table in front of his sofa.

"So what's first?" Adrien asked, excitement clear on his face.

His question was timed perfectly, because she answered it by pulling her pajamas out of the bottom of her bag. "First we get changed," she said.

Adrien froze, and his whole face flooded red.

Realizing, Marinette also felt her face heat up drastically, and she rushed to amend, "Not like, at the same time! Or together! Or–" She snapped her mouth shut before she could dig herself into a deeper hole. Gathering her pjs, she asked, "Can I use your bathroom?"

Still red in the everywhere, Adrien nodded and gestured to the bathroom door, even though she already knew where it was. She scurried away, and as she closed the door behind herself, the both of them took a few seconds to breath and _stop thinking_ the things they were thinking. Marinette got changed quickly, and pulled down her hair, then replaced it into one semi-high ponytail.

When she finally stepped out of the bathroom, after a few more breaths and some water to her face to stop the blushing, Adrien was standing just outside holding his own set of nightclothes.

"Your turn," Marinette said, holding the door open for him.

He took almost as long as she did, and she was gratified to think that she wasn't the only one being an awkward mess. Regardless, she was going to have to be more careful about what she said and did– a few more weird implications and Adrien might never invite her back!

When he came out of the bathroom, Mari held up the slippers from her seat on his sofa, one set in each hand.

"Bunny or kitty?" She asked.

He laughed. "Do you really need to ask?"

She threw the kitty slippers to him, which he happily put on, and Mari put on the bunnies.

"Hier ist ein Kaninchen," Marinette said, leaning back and kicking up one leg to present the bunny slipper.

Adrien laughed. "I knew that phrase would come in handy. Okay then, I'm all pj'ed up, and my fuzzy slippers are on. I'm ready, where to we start?"

Marinette gestured to the table in front of her, "Wherever you want."

—

At 3:00, they were still very wide awake playing video games. They had already done the makeovers (Marinette got punk-rock while Adrien was dolled up in pastels), they'd watched several episodes of Sailor Moon ("Subbed not dubbed!" Adrien had demanded), they'd had a pillow fight and built a sheet fort (which then proceeded to another pillow fight to determine who had rightful claim to it), and they'd eaten a _ton_ of popcorn and pastries and candy (which included much sliding on marble floors in their slippers as they went to the kitchen to pop the corn). So overall, the sleepover was going pretty well.

Currently, they were playing Mario Kart, because no matter which fighting game they played, Mari always seemed to win, and Adrien seemed to think that he could get the upper hand on her in a racing game.

"Did you just blue-shell me?!" Adrien accused while his Yoshi kart spun out and Mari's Bowser zipped past him into first.

"Nope, but I'm glad someone did!" she said, leaning forward in her seat and blepping her tongue in concentration.

Getting his controls back, Adrien struggled to try to catch up. He passed some of the NPCs that had overtaken him, but they were too close to the end, and Mari was too far ahead now.

A few seconds later, she sprung up. "First place!" she announced in a delighted squeal.

Adrien thought he was right behind her, but when he crossed the finish line, his screen read 'third'.

"Third? I came in behind an NPC? I didn't see them! Who else did I lose to?" he complained. The screen staked up the scores, and there in second place was— "Baby Peach," he muttered disbelievingly. "I lost to _Baby Peach_!"

"Aw, don't worry, I'm sure next time you'll beat the itty-bitty princess," Marinette teased.

"The only itty-bitty princess I see here is you, Princess," Adrien teased back.

Marinette huffed, feigning indignation, and said, "Then I take it back— next time, I'm sure the itty-bitty princess will kick your butt again."

Adrien laughed then said, "I actually think I know a game I can beat you at."

"That's what you said about Mario Kart."

"So you aren't afraid then?" he challenged.

"Ladybug fears nothing!" Marinette declared, standing for emphasis and striking a heroic pose.

Adrien smirked, confident that he would win this one, and gestured to the dance machine against his wall.

Marinette sighed and slumped forward. "Ladybug fears one thing," she admitted under her breath. She was certain she was going to fall flat on her butt if she tried to keep on Adrien's level. Last time she had played this game in an arcade with Alya, she slipped backwards trying to hit two arrows at once and ended up falling sideways and knocking over some poor kid whose skittles flew everywhere. Even after buying him more skittles, she still felt horrible.

Adrien went first. He picked a fast song and set it to a high level and Marinette groaned. His feet flew under him as she watched in equal parts horror and amazement. As he danced, Tikki floated over and sat on her one shoulder, and Plagg burrowed into the top of her ponytail.

"He's really good at that," Tikki commented lightly.

"He plays it all the time," Plagg whined. "Especially when he _knows_ I'm trying to sleep!"

"You're always trying to sleep, Plagg," Tikki teased.

"That's not true. I stay awake at meal times," he joked back.

Tikki and Marinette laughed, and Adrien's song came to an end.

"Think you can beat it?" he asked, jumping off the machine and glancing over his shoulder at the score that was flashing still on the screen.

"Absolutely not," Mari said, "but here's to trying."

She stepped on the machine and selected the same song and same level as Adrien. The song cued up, and she missed even the very first step. The rest of the song followed suit— Marinette flailed and flailed, but barely made any of the steps, and only got 'okay's and occasionally 'good's, but no 'great's or 'perfect's.

Adrien tried not to laugh from behind her, hoping not to embarrass or discourage her, though she really did resemble a baby deer on ice. He didn't want her to stop, though. It was funny, and he tried not to think about how it was cute.

Her turn ended with a pitifully low score.

"Points for effort?" Adrien offered.

Mari turned to him, and he was surprised to see the determined look in her eye. "Save it. I'm not done."

Adrien raised an eyebrow at her. If she had been faking being bad to look more impressive when she belted out her moves later, she had done a confusingly convincing job at it.

But he understood her plan a second before it went into action, because her eyes darted to Tikki, who was smiling back supportively and nodded.

With a grin, Mari called "Spots on" and restarted the song, daring to set the level even higher.

Though Marinette had flailed like a lost duckling, Ladybug flew like a swan. It seemed every step was met with a new 'perfect' gracing the screen, and no matter how fast the song went, she went faster. She was so light on her toes he could barely even hear her tapping the game pad under her.

It was over as soon as it began, and a congratulatory tune played as the screen announced that she had set a new high score.

Ladybug entered her initials as GUB, back flipped off the machine dramatically, poked Adrien in the chest, and challenged, "Beat that."

Adrien grinned. "Plagg," he called, ignoring his kwami disappointed groan. "Claws out."

Chat set the song to it's highest level now, and absolutely killed it. Ladybug watched on in amazement, and though half of her was impressed by his agility with the game, the other half was focused on something entirely different. Adrien's body presented itself very differently in a skintight catsuit than it did in his frumpy pajamas, and her eyes raked over him appreciatively a few times before she forced them to stop.

At the end of the song, Chat had blown Ladybug's high score out of the water. He put his name in as TAC, catching on to how she had spelled 'bug' backwards for hers, and turned around to face his Lady with a self satisfied smirk.

"What did you think of _that_?" he bragged.

Ladybug was _not_ thinking about the game. " _Amazing_ ," she answered a little breathlessly, hoping she wasn't blushing— or if she was that he couldn't see it under her mask.

Chat grinned, oblivious to her tone, and let Plagg free.

"I'm glad my _ancient and mighty power_ was helpful to you in your _video game_ , Adrien," he griped as he flew away.

"Thank you!" Adrien called after him.

Mari detransformed next, and with a smile, Tikki flew off to find Plagg, probably to cuddle up and go to sleep.

Adrien yawned, and Marinette couldn't help but yawn after him.

"Pillow fort?" he offered.

Marinette nodded. Her mind was still half-gone, thinking about the way Adrien's muscles moved under his suit, but she managed to follow him into the fort, which had blankets and pillows strewn around the floor for comfort.

Adrien immediately flopped onto the floor to lie on his back, and Marinette had to fight back the urge to put her head on his chest and curl herself around him. Instead, she just lay down next to him, also on her back, and closed her eyes.

A few seconds later, she heard shuffling, and before she could even look over to check it out, Adrien's hand came to rest across her stomach, his forehead settled against the side of her shoulder, and his knee knocking into hers.

There was still a lot of empty space between them, but in the blanket fort in his room in the night with nobody else around, he felt very, very close.

Afraid that any movement would break the spell, all Marinette did was place one of her hands on his on her stomach reassuringly. In response, he sighed contently, and when Marinette cracked open her eyes to look at him, he seemed to all the world to be asleep.

She smiled and closed her eyes again, and despite her heart beating too fast in her chest, soon enough, she fell asleep too.


	8. Chapter 8

Marinette woke up warm and comfortable. Her face was pressed against something soft and nice smelling. She inhaled deeply, and sighed when she exhaled. _Adrien_. Her face was pressed into his shirt, and his felt like it was pressed against the top of her head. Her arms were folded up between them, and one of his was draped over her side and limply lying against her back. Their legs were all tangled up with each other and the sheets and blankets. It was heaven.

But also her bottom arm was asleep.

She tried to shimmy as subtly as possible to let blood flow back to the limb without disturbing Adrien, but she didn't succeed. With a tired sigh, he began to stir, and she knew she'd woken him. What she wasn't expecting was for Adrien's arm around her to pull her closer to his chest, or his legs to wiggle deeper into the twist of limbs they'd created. She wasn't expecting his nose to bury into her hair, or for him to inhale her scent, and she _definitely_ wasn't expecting him to sigh her name– a soft, quiet " _Marinette_ " half mumbled– as he settled into their new, even closer position.

Then reality seemed to douse him like a bucket of cold water, because he repeated, "Marinette?" like he only just realized what he'd said, and immediately pulled away to be able to see her.

For half a second, Mari wasn't sure how she was supposed to react once hers and Adrien's eyes met, but the second his face was in focus, she had her answer.

She laughed hysterically.

The pastel makeup she'd gratuitously painted on him last night was now smeared all over his face. The green and gold eyeshadow was spread over his cheeks, the muted pink blush was smudged in weird directions, and the lip gloss was streaked down towards his chin.

Whatever she looked like must have been no better, because Adrien too broke down into laughter.

"Mon Dieu, we should have washed our faces last night," Adrien said, sitting up and catching his breath.

"And missed waking up to this?" Marinette asked, still laughing. Joking aside, she was actually thankful that this had diffused the situation they'd been in before it had a chance to get awkward, and all the laughing could easily explain away the redness in her cheeks that lingered from when he'd sighed her name and pulled her closer.

Adrien looked up at the sheet ceiling of their fort, and noticed the bright sunlight streaming through. "What time is it?" he asked.

Marinette shrugged and crawled out of the fort to hunt down her phone.

"9:45," she called when she found it. She turned around to see Adrien's head poking out of the fort too. "I should probably head home. It's a Saturday, so my parents will probably be busy all morning, but if I don't show up downstairs eventually, they'll go up to my room to check on me."

Adrien frowned, but he didn't object.

Marinette noticed. "You could come over," she suggested, starting to shove stuff back into her bag. "I mean, not _right now_ , because I have to make it home first, but we could meet back up before lunch and spend the day together."

Adrien's face scrunched up in consideration. "I don't know if I'm technically allowed to leave the house," he told her.

"What do you mean?" she asked, stalling from her packing.

Adrien crawled the rest of the way out of the fort and sat cross legged on the floor. "Well, my dad has left me home unsupervised before, but the general protocol is that I lock all the doors and windows and stay inside."

"The whole time he's gone?!"

"Well, he's never left me alone for more than forty-eight hours, but yeah, I guess," he admitted with a shrug.

"Adrien, that's _insane_! He can't keep you locked up like that!" she insisted.

"Yeah, my dad's overprotective nature crossed the line into crazy-town a long time ago. But it's not like it actually stops me from leaving. I don't now if you've noticed, but Chat Noir is perfectly capable of using that window as a door," he said, gesturing behind her to the wall of glass.

Marinette paused. She wanted to tell him to call his dad and demand he be allowed to _leave_ his _house_ in the time he was gone, but she didn't really want to force her nose into business that wasn't hers.

"What's that face?" Adrien asked, standing to walk over to her.

"Smeared makeup," she muttered grumpily.

"You know what I mean."

"I don't think it's right," she admitted. "I don't think it's fair to you for him to lock you up and throw away the key just because he isn't here to micromanage you."

"It's not," he agreed, "but he's my _dad_ , what am I going to do?" Then with a mischievous smirk, he added, "Besides sneak out at night to jump across rooftops with Paris's sweetheart, of course."

She laughed. "Nobody calls me that," she told him.

"Then I'm coining it. Just you wait, it'll catch on!" he promised.

Marinette rolled her eyes and finished packing up her stuff. "I'll see you tonight then?" she checked.

"We can climb the Eiffel Tower," he suggested.

She smiled at the idea, and was inwardly pleased at how romantic it would be up there that night. "I'll bring pastries," she agreed. "Tikki?" she called.

Tikki popped up out of one of Adrien's many cubbies. "Ready to go!" she announced, the turned around and called, "Bye, Plagg!"

A faint, tired groan was heard from the direction Tikki came from, and Adrien chuckled. "This is what I have to live with," he teased.

"Well I'm not trading with you! Spots on."

This time Adrien watched, enraptured, as the pink, sparkling light ran up Marinette's body, leaving Ladybug in its wake. She jumped to his window, where she perched for a second to say, "Till tonight," then launched herself up and out and towards home.

Adrien sighed, wanting more than anything to follow her, but instead turned back into his room and began to pick up any evidence of the sleepover. He wasn't sure when his father would return, but he knew he wouldn't get any warning, so he decided cleaning up now would leave him better safe than sorry.

He washed his face and tidied up the room, but left deconstructing the fort for last. And even then, when everything else was done, instead of taking it down, he crawled back inside and thought about how soft and warm and nice-smelling and close Marinette had been this morning, until he accidentally fell back asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

Ladybug zipped across the river towards the Eiffel Tower. She had fallen back asleep almost immediately after getting home, though she thankfully remembered to cleanse her face of the smeared thick eyeliner, heavy mascara, and candy apple red lipstick from her punk-rock makeover before crashing again on her bed. That would have been hard to explain to her mom at noon when she came to wake her up for lunch, affectionately teasing her for being a lazybones, and making her promise not to stay up so late anymore.

It was just after sunset, so the sky wasn't completely dark yet, and Ladybug noticed a number of people on the ground noticing her. She tried to smile and wave at them all as she flew through the city, not wanting to alarm anyone, and a great number of them waved back.

She was stopped on a particularly low roof near the Eiffel Tower, and was waving to a group of kids below, who were frantically waving back and excitedly yelling to each other and their parents, when she heard a soft double thud behind her.

"Paris's sweetheart," Chat's voice drawled smugly, seeing his point proven pretty throughly.

Ladybug was still watching the kids below, who were twice as excited now. "They want your attention," she told him.

He glanced over the edge and saluted the kids, who all eagerly copied him and saluted him back. He laughed, and she smiled.

"You're their sweetheart too, you know," she told him.

He smiled. "And here I thought I'd only ever be famous for sitting places and looking pretty."

Ladybug laughed. "So how was the rest of your day?" she asked, stepping away from the edge so the kids' parents could persuade them to keep moving.

Chat followed her. "Boring. I practiced the piano, did some Chinese work, looked up my father's show in Milan to see if I could guess how it was going."

"Could you?" she asked.

"Not really. All the reports of it are free from disaster stories, but you never know what's going on backstage." He shrugged. "Oh, and Chloé's back from Monaco and Nice. She called and demanded I welcome her home, but I told her I was pretty much under house arrest and she let it go."

"She did?" Ladybug asked, unable to believe that _Chloé_ would ever stop pushing when she wanted something.

"Yeah," he said. "She gets it. Her dad does the same thing to her sometimes, so we're kinda in the same boat."

Ladybug frowned. "I never knew. I always thought her dad just gave her whatever she wanted."

"He does," Chat said ruefully. "So does mine, but only when it's _stuff_. I get a dance machine and a huge computer and a rock wall in my room, and Chloé gets all the clothes and shoes and bags she wants, but... it's not enough. It's not..." he trailed off sadly and sighed.

Ladybug stepped over, wrapped her arms around his torso and hugged him hard. He embraced her back, his arms encircling her shoulders and holding her tightly to him.

"I'm sorry," she said, muttering the words into his shoulder. He swore he could feel the vibrations on them in his heart, but maybe that was just his imagination.

"It's not so bad," he told her. "I have you. I have Nino and Alya and Chloé, even though she can be kind of egotistical sometimes, and I know my dad loves me, he's just not very open about it."

She pulled back to look at him. "Well I'm glad you know we all love you, and if you ever need reminding, call me up and I'll zip over and give you the biggest hug ever and bring you croissants and scratch your head, and Alya can make fun of it all she likes."

Chat laughed, and with a final squeeze, pulled away. "Thanks. It's good to hear that."

"Any time," she promised with a smile. "Eiffel Tour?"

"Let's go."

—

Ladybug made it to the tower first, but Chat managed to beat her to the top of it.

He sat on the edge of a beam, with one leg dangling over and the other folded with his ankle resting on the opposite knee. Ladybug's yoyo zipped past the side of his head, hooked on the cross beam above him, and reeled his Lady up until she landed next to him.

"I win," he teased as she settled next to him. "What's my prize? Pastries?"

"Oh shoot, I forgot to bring snacks," she said, frowning.

"What?!" Chat yelped. "Well nevermind then. I only came for the food, so if you didn't bring any, I'm out!" he declared, starting to stand up.

Ladybug grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. "Ha, ha," she said sarcastically. "I'm sure you can survive one evening without free food."

"I dunno," he said, worriedly placing his hand over his stomach. "I might die of hunger. Or pass out of low blood sugar, and then die of falling off the Eiffel Tower."

"Well, I at least promise to tell everyone you died doing something cooler. How does motorcycle tightrope accident sound? I can be vague on the details to make you out to be even more mysterious and hardcore," she offered.

"Tempting, but I'm pretty sure falling off the Eiffel Tower is already one of the cooler ways to go. We just need to change the reason to something better than lack of pastries."

"Well, we could always go with the old cat standard of 'he knew how to climb up but not how to get down,'" she teased.

Chat laughed. "Someone needs to help with your definition of 'cooler'! You know it mean, ' _more_ cool', right?"

"Maybe just don't fall to your death then," she suggested with a shrug.

"Of course!" he said, lightly hitting his forehead with the heel of his palm. "Why didn't I think of that?"

Ladybug leaned her head on Chat's shoulder comfortably, and Chat, acting before he lost his nerve, wrapped his arm around her shoulders. They sat for a while, gazing at the city, lazily kicking their legs over the edge, silently enjoying the warmth of the other against the cold air so high up.

"So when does your dad come home?" Ladybug asked.

"No idea. When a trip is such an emergency that he has to take Nathalie with him, he usually doesn't have time to call and keep me up to date. But the upside is, with Nathalie gone, all my lessons are automatically cancelled," he explained with a smile.

"Nathalie doesn't usually go places with him?" she asked. "I thought she was his personal assistant."

He shook his head. "She manages my father's schedule to an extent, but he generally conducts his own business. Most of her job is managing me, honestly. Though I think she does more work for him now that I'm in school. She had been homeschooling me before, too."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

Chat smirked at her. "I try not to be too much of a handful," he teased. "But I can tell you she isn't a fan of all my akuma related disappearances."

"Does she suspect anything?" Ladybug asked with a concerned frown.

"I don't think so," he answered. "At least, she's never said or done anything that makes me think she knows." Ladybug frowned still, so he assured her, "Don't worry, bugaboo, I _do_ look after my secret identity."

"I never imagined it'd be such a chore for you," she admitted. " I mean, I get away with mine pretty easily, but having someone always looking over your shoulder must really make it harder, huh?"

Chat shrugged. "I manage. But I admit, I probably shouldn't be out too late. My dad and Nathalie could come home at any minute, and if I'm not there, it could mean trouble."

Ladybug sat up straight, worried, jerking herself out from under Chat's arm. "What? Why did you come out at all if it could cause you problems?" she demanded.

Chat shrugged. "It seemed worth it. I can't stay in that house all the time, and I wanted to see you."

Ladybug's stomach tingled at his casual admittance that he wanted her company, but worry overruled it. "You need to go home."

Chat lolled his head backs and sighed dramatically, but he couldn't honestly deny her logic. Coming out tonight had been much more of a risk than he wanted to admit, and if his father did come home to find him missing, he'd probably call the police and the army and anyone else he could get his hands on to escalate the situation.

So instead of arguing, he said, "Yeah, probably."

She stood up and pulled her yoyo off her waist, and he stood too. He found that the prospect of saying goodbye to his Lady was a lot less daunting now than it had been in the past. Knowing who she was, knowing she cared for him, knowing he had her number and could call or text her whenever he wanted— all of it made it easier to say goodbye now. It saved him from all the late nights of wondering where she was and what she was doing and whether she ever thought of him.

"So when do I get to see you next?" he asked.

Ladybug laughed. "Yeah, because _I_ have to check _my_ super busy schedule."

"As soon as possible, then," he promised.

"If your identity isn't already blown by the time you get home," she muttered.

"I'll be fine!" he insisted. He jumped over the edge, and when Ladybug peered down after him he was sliding down the iron structure like he had a skateboard under his feet, with one hand trailing on the metal to keep his balance.

She smiled after him, then flicked her yoyo, and began her much less direct descent of swinging around and down, rehooking her yoyo every couple meters.


End file.
